Biography
Peerson worked actively in London as an organist and virginalist, and his creative output drew directly from those keyboard techniques and personal mannerisms. Although he produced both instrumental and vocal compositions, his significance rests chiefly on the bold experiments he pursued, among them striking dissonances, unexpected chord sequences, unconventional preparations, and novel harmonic choices. He likewise tested the boundaries of formal design within the stylistic norms of late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century music. His two collections of secular vocal music stand as lasting evidence of this inventiveness, for they integrate six-part writing with elements drawn from the ayre, the madrigal, the consort song, verse anthems, and independent instrumental support. The second of these volumes reflects Peerson’s personal sensibility through its grave, restrained anthems, whose gravity is reinforced by the unusually low registers assigned to the bass lines. That same publication also marks the earliest English printed collection to include a figured bass.